EJ1- Prologue Excerpt

Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1

Prologue Excerpt:

Entrepreneurship is not a career. It is a way of life. For me, this journey began as a graduate student at MIT in 1994. The world watched Netscape go public a year later, and the Internet swept over us like a virus. As I wrote my Masters thesis, I also wrote my first business plan. We were, as a generation, shaping the Internet during those early years, and, my degree in hand, I was ready to jump into the unknown – from then on really, I have been jumping into unknowns at every turn.

Fortunately I’ve had great mentors – people who took an interest in my destiny, stopped along the way, and taught me a thing or two.

In turn, I have tried to stop along the way to pass on certain nuggets of my own learning. In the summer of 2006, as the technology industry resurfaced from the nuclear winter that followed the dotcom meltdown, I was invited to speak at imaginea startup workshop. My session was supposed to focus on Positioning. At a Silicon Valley law firm, some sixty entrepreneurs packed a conference room to listen to me. I asked each to pitch his business idea in one minute, following which I gave feedback for another minute or two. My 90-minute rapid-fire session, alas, was not enough to accommodate all the pitches. In the lobby, even as we spilled onto the front steps, I tried to respond to some more, but it was hardly satisfactory. In fact, it has always frustrated me to realize that I did not have enough time in my day to stop for each entrepreneur who asked for guidance. Friends – seasoned entrepreneurs – have expressed the same frustration.

“Entrepreneur Journeys” is my attempt to capture that tribal knowledge accumulated in the private lives of great entrepreneurs – and give it shape, form, color, and a broad reach.

Imagine…

As you curl up in bed with this book of short stories, you are effectively transported across the table from each of the entrepreneurs, listening to their stories. You’ll learn, as I have learned, from their real-time experiences. All those dinners, lunches, coffees, teas, and glasses of wine from which so many stories have flowed – I invite you to experience them with me. Seated in the living room with Sridhar Vembu; lounging at Coupa Café in Palo Alto with Philippe Courtot; on the patio of Woodside Bakery, perhaps, your lunch companion is Russ Fradin.

Listen to their stories. Watch how they formulate ideas, navigate turbulent waters, create strategies, change directions, and make choices.

Listen. Learn. Empathize. Agree. Disagree. Develop your own point of view.

Most of all, I hope you find inspiration in these conversations – enough to help you become great entrepreneurs yourselves. For in entrepreneurship, I believe, lie solutions to many of the problems facing our modern world.

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